30 Nov In the name of humanity: A city quarter for everyone!
What we need to learn from the founding fathers of the Otto Wagner Areal and take to heart for its transformation.
Dear friends, dear companions,
In one of my previous blog posts, I reported that I am now helping to create a flourishing future at the Otto Wagner Areal ( OWA for short) on the hills in the west of Vienna. Together with the dedicated and competent people at Otto Wagner Areal Revitalisierung GmbH I will be working in the coming years on the transformation of a city within the city, helping to transform it from a public place of health care, recreation and healing into a public place of scientific, artistic and entrepreneurial creation and production.
To do this, it is necessary to take a closer look at the eventful history of the site and the intentions of its founding fathers. (Unfortunately, our posterity has learned far too little about the “founding mothers”, the numerous women who ensured the functioning of the sanatorium and nursing home, which was highly modern for the beginning of the 20th century, by caring for the sick and suffering as well as in the commercial enterprises located on the grounds).
“The most beautiful for the poorest!”
At the end of the 19th century, the view prevailed in science and society that mentally ill people should not simply be isolated or even locked away, but placed in an environment that would increase their chances of recovery and thus benefit the general public – from the air quality in Vienna’s green belt to the extensive park landscape. The clinical view was expanded to include a social and humanitarian dimension. One of the most striking buildings on the site bears witness to this: the Gesellschaftshaus designed by Otto Wagner, better known as the Art Nouveau theater on the Baumgartner Höhe. It is located on the central access axis of the site and represents the artistic center, as it were, between the administration building at the entrance to the site and the famous domed building of St. Leopold’s Church at Steinhof.
The Gesellschaftshaus presents itself as an opulently designed building, modeled on an Italian palazzo, whose art nouveau architecture makes use of baroque and rococo design elements. At the same time, it is a highly functional event and theater building that can still be easily used today. It served as a dignified place of edification, entertainment and diversion: first and foremost for patients, sufferers and sufferers who hoped for recovery of body and soul in the surrounding pavilions. For the medical staff who followed the performances in the gallery, there was no doubt: theater, music, literature and the nobility of the building itself were conducive to the comprehensive recovery of their clientele. “The poorest the most beautiful!” was the maxim of Otto Wagner and other visionary founding fathers. This was also made possible because the sanatorium and nursing home on the Baumgartner Höhe was intended for all (!) social classes. The income from the sanatorium for the financially better-off was diverted to the pavilions where the less well-off were cared for.
Boldly into new times
The sanatoriums and nursing homes at Steinhof put an end to the age of asylums and fools’ towers in a way that was world-renowned for its dimensions, quality and innovation. The pavilion system corresponded to the specific treatment needs of different clinical pictures. The Art Nouveau theater, with the remarkable span of its hall ceiling, is an early prime example of the possible applications of reinforced concrete, a new building material at the time.
The visions of the project drivers had to overcome a lot of resistance before and during construction: Leopold SteinerLeopold Steiner, a Christian-social politician and mastermind of the large-scale construction project, managed to acquire 110 affordable plots of land within a few days [Plakolm-Forsthuber, p. 50], but he still had to deal with accusations of wasting money, including from within his own party. The planners also had to endure some broadsides; in his opening speech on October 8, 1907, heir to the throne Franz-Ferdinand publicly criticized Otto Wagner’s architecture. Due to the unimaginable working conditions today – a 12-hour front including sandstone quarrying on site – there were also strikes by the construction workers and later by the glaziers. Nevertheless, up to 5,000 workers on the construction site managed to build the sanatoriums and nursing homes from the hills of the suburb in just over two years.
The foundations of “inclusion” and “humanity” on which the sanatoriums and nursing homes at Steinhof had been built proved to be viable even after the years of famine during the First World War and during the heyday of Red Vienna, before they fell victim to the National Socialist rampage against “unworthy life”.
Standing up to the madness of the world
In a report published in 1919, the famous writer Joseph Roth called the sanatoriums and nursing homes at Steinhof “an island of the insane”, “a garden city of the insane” and “a refuge for those who have failed in the madness of the world”. A good century later, the site with its pavilions and parkland, theater, church and numerous functional buildings is on the verge of another ground-breaking ceremony. A transformation can begin here that would be comparable to the construction of the sanatoriums and nursing homes. The vision: an island for everyone, a garden city of creatives, a place of enthusiasts who stand up to the madness of the world. The ingredients: Courage, foresight, patience – and a common will on the part of politicians, administrators and the creative forces in this city and in this country. Just as the founding fathers of the sanatoriums and nursing homes at Steinhof exemplified. It is thanks to their Viennese blend of generosity, perseverance and a sense for consensual solutions in detail that, 107 years after the opening of the site, we can dare to revitalize the city within the city with so much high-quality substance.
What is now the Otto Wagner Areal is to be transformed into a sanatorium for the world and its imbalances. A project with a truly European dimension, because it is about the connection between science and research, art and entrepreneurial creativity in the spirit of humanity and enlightenment. A connection that is based on people using their intellect without the guidance of others, as formulated by Immanuel Kant in his essay “What is enlightenment?”. A connection that, in my deepest conviction, makes Europe stronger than the worldwide increase in authoritarian societies or incapacitating techno-capitalism would suggest.
With this in mind, I would like to drive forward the resettlement of the Otto Wagner Areal and look forward to welcoming everyone who shares this program or wants to become part of it.
Model workshop
The pictures in this blog post come from the wonderful workshop of Robert Hutfless. Thanks to the energy and perseverance of him and his colleagues, there has been a flagship project at the Otto Wagner Areal since 1996 that has had an impact far beyond Vienna. The model workshop at Steinhof is an employment and work project for people with an addiction who want to take control of their own lives again.
Never OWA now!
Attention pioneers, interested parties and explorers: If you are planning to move to Vienna with your organization, set up a company and are looking for the perfect place to do so, you can contact me and arrange a site inspection at cm@chrismueller.at
Sources:
- Caroline Jäger-Klein, Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber (eds.): The city outside, Basel 2015
- Mildred-Michèle Joerg-Ronceray: A special house – The Art Nouveau theater at Steinhof, Master’s thesis at the University of Strasbourg, 2019
- Nina-Maria Waltraud Jakob: Otto Wagner Areal am Steinhof, diploma thesis at the Vienna University of Technology, 2020
- Sophie Ledebur: The knowledge of institutional psychiatry in the modern age. On the history of the sanatoriums and nursing homes Am Steinhof in Vienna, dissertation at the University of Vienna, 2011
